Local Elections (general)

Sometimes the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg attacks the Government but he does this much less than most of his Party colleagues. Mr Clegg generally grasps that being in the Coalition Government while constantly trying to distance himself from it does not have credibility.

Lib Dem councillors often spend more time opposing Government policy than supporting it. In his speech today at the Lib Dem Local Government Conference, Mr Clegg urged them to take a different approach:

Imagine yourself on the doorstep – two different conversations.

The first:

Hello, I’m from the Liberal Democrats, for which I am truly sorry...
No, I’d rather not talk about the things we’ve done in national government if you don’t mind...
Around here we’ve been terribly nice, would it be possible to just stick to that?

The second:

I’m from the Liberal Democrat Party.
When the country needed it, we stepped up to our responsibilities...
Entering into Coalition with our opponents for the sake of the national interest.
We have taken some difficult decisions, but by doing so the country’s battered economy is on the mend.
Well over a million jobs have been created...
As well as record numbers of apprenticeships...
And we have managed to cut taxes for the vast majority of British taxpayers.
Here in this neighbourhood we have also protected vital services that matter to you.
Vote for us again and you will get more of the same.

That’s the conversation that will inspire people to support us. We will not be rewarded for hiding our achievements and beliefs. And our biggest error would be to come this far only to head into retreat.

Martin Drake, James Hart and Nicholas Allen warn that fringe parties like UKIP and the English Democrats will not deliver Conservative policies

We learnt a significant lesson this May in Doncaster, when Conservatives work with fringe right wing parties we lose, in fact you lose badly.

The growth of the fringe right must not be ignored no matter how small. Many Conservatives dismiss fringe parties as flashes in the pan. Fringe parties like UKIP and the English Democrats lack the experience and heritage which is an integral part of the Conservative Party’s success. They fade just as quickly as they burn brightly.

However in Doncaster we have experienced the damage these parties can do. Their presence on the ballot paper was enough to shift anti-Labour voters away from the Conservatives at numerous local elections. Even though the size of their parties may grow the lack of competition come selection time means it’s not the cream that rises to the top it’s the bottom of the barrel that is scraped.

These parties and groups usually orbit around one strong willed individual who pushes their own agenda and holds court surrounded by a few personal friends. Take the English Democrats in Doncaster; as soon as Peter Davies went independent they imploded.

Trevor Ringland, Vice Chairman of the Northern Ireland Conservatives and a former British and Irish Lions rugby player, on plans for next year's council elections

Northern Ireland Conservatives have unveiled our first tranche of Prospective Council Candidates (PCCs) this week, for local elections which are expected to be held in May 2014. It is almost a year since the party, which is now autonomous on issues devolved to Northern Ireland, launched at the MAC Arts Centre in Belfast. During those 12 months, policy groups have been working hard to assemble outline policies across the areas of responsibility for the departments at the Stormont Assembly.

A great deal of effort has also gone into grassroots campaigning, with council hopefuls getting on to doorsteps to pick up issues and build up their profiles. David Symington from Bangor, for instance, has become synonymous with a campaign to introduce ‘street fishing’ in the town, while Brian McBride, from Groomsport, is his area’s champion for faster internet, discussing the issue personally with Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT.

They are among the first tranche of PCCs and over the coming months many more will be introduced.

Next year’s elections will be the first to follow a sweeping Review of Public Administration in Northern Ireland. The plan is to reduce 26 current local councils to 11, and the new administrations will then
function in shadow form for 12 months, before replacing the old system. This new arrangement presents challenges, but it also provides opportunities.

In Northern Ireland council seats are contested on a proportional basis, with wards combining to form ‘DEAs’ which are represented by a number of councillors. A set of extensive boundary changes have been drawn up, but they are currently out to consultation. That means that there is an element of doubt about the composition of Electoral Areas, which could persist into the early months of 2014.

As part of the plan to reduce the number of councils and council seats, existing councillors are being encouraged to retire, with the promise of generous pay offs, which Northern Ireland Conservatives oppose. They are also entitled to quit before the end of this year and nominate replacements, who will carry the advantage of incumbency into the election; a scheme which is sure to advantage parties that are already strong in Northern Ireland.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that we badly need more efficient councils, responsible for larger geographical areas. There is a culture of over-government, waste and bureaucracy in Town Halls, which Northern Ireland Conservative candidates will challenge. We believe in providing
excellent services for the best value for money, helping local businesses to create jobs and encouraging a spirit of entrepreneurship in communities which need a buoyant private sector to provide employment and prosperity.

We’re also determined to challenge the outdated doctrines of orange and green, in order to focus on a genuinely shared future, with Northern Ireland voters playing a meaningful role in UK politics and enjoying good relationships with the Republic to our south.

With new councils and a new local government system, it’s an ideal time to introduce this fresh approach to local politics. Northern Ireland Conservatives are a vibrant, young party, which is building from the grassroots up. We’re excited to have some excellent, prospective council candidates already, with many more to come, and they’ll be working hard in their communities to offer something different for Northern Ireland.

Cllr Martin Curtis, the Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, on the challenges of running a minority administration

The change in political control in Cambridgeshire took everyone by surprise. Despite the fact that the election result was "No Overall Control", there were successes for the Conservatives, especially in East and South Cambridgeshire where we gained seats.

The surprise was in the Fenland and Huntingdonshire areas where nobody predicted the level of the swing towards UKIP (including UKIP themselves). That and the fact that our Leader, Nick Clarke lost his seat (almost certainly because he lived outside his Division) threw us into a situation that no-one suspected.

However, we have quickly dusted ourselves off and are very much looking forwards. We are running a minority administration and retain the ambition to deliver the priorities contained in our manifesto. In terms of our economy that means ensuring we deliver on the major infrastructure projects that, when in place, will ensure that Cambridgeshire thrives.

I have already documented how Labour have lost control of Harrow Council after a group of their councillors, including the council leader, resigned the whip. I have also noted how in Brent several Labour councillors, including the former Labour have been deselected.

Some have said that if UKIP's vote share in the local elections was reflected in a swing at the General Election they would still have no MPs. However that figure of nil is reached by simply applying a national share of the vote. If one looks at the results in the council wards making up individual Parliamentary constituencies then UKIP would have ten MPs - that is according to the Survation analysis.

The seat with the largest UKIP notional majority wouild be Boston and Skegness. The constituency has a dozen divisions on Lincolnshire County Council. The Conservatives hung on in Boston Rural, also in Ingoldmells Rural. An independent won Boston South. But UKIP won the other nine.

What has the impact of these UKIP councillors been? They have spurned a coalition with the Conservatives. They also declined the optiong of sustaining a Conservative minority administration. Instead they chose the comfort of opposition to exercising power. This obliged the Conservatives into a coalition with the Lib Dems who now have a Cabinet Member. I suppose the UKIP councillors will thus find it that bit easier to criticise. I see one Cabinet Member has responsibility for "equality and diversity." Groan.

The irony is that in forcing a coalition with the Lib Dems the election of UKIP councillors pushes the council administration to the Left. Any Conservative efforts to reduce political correctness or cut spending are subject to Lib Dem veto.

After the local elections earlier this month there were 40 Conservative councillors returned, 15 for UKIP, 14 for Labour, 10 for the Lib Dems, four Green Party councillors and one independent. A Labour councillor Cllr George Nobbs has become the council leader.

The Conservative opposition leader Cllr Bill Borrett says:

"The Conservatives will aim to be the best possible opposition and act in the interests of the people of Norfolk.

"But I am concerned that they appear to have no policies and the Greens are not going to join them formally.

"The county council needs a formal strategy to deal with the government's funding cuts ahead and we have heard nothing of that.

"I am sure the people of Norfolk will want to hear their policies but they've spent their first day arguing about seats."

Typically you find that Conservative councils apply socialist policies. This is not normally because Conservative councillors are closet socialists. The problem is they allow policy to be driven by the bureaucracy. Thus, socialist policy remains in place even if control of the council switches from Lib Dem or Labour to Conservative.

What are the socialist characteristics of most Conservative councils?

1. High Council Tax. Band D Council Tax is, on average, £1,138 a year under Conservative councils. Under Labour ones it is £1,206. So is the price of socialism only £68 a year? Or is it more reasonable to say that many Conservative councils are practising socialism? The gap would be even smaller if we took Westminster and Wandsworth out of the equation.

2. Opposing school choice. Often Conservative councils have planning policies which seek to thwart new free schools (or independent schools for that matter) from opening. Many have tried to dissuade schools from becoming academies.

3. Punishing home ownership. Council leaseholders have excessive and complicated charges and find housing officers treat them as class enemies.

4. Using jargon to escape scrutiny. Often Conservative councils will use "investment" as a term for "spending." "Equality" is another word that crops up a lot. Fine if it means that all residents are equally important. But often supposedly Conservative councils pursue equality of economic outcome as an objective. Socialists believe that reducing poverty and reducing inequality are the same thing. Conservatives should understand that they are different. Language matters - for instance in the criteria used to allocate grants to voluntary organisations.

5. Penalising motorists. There needs to be parking charges as space is limited. But typically the annual parking permit charge is higher than justified on these grounds. Traffic jams are also encouraged by excessive amount of traffic lights, bus lanes and humps. Too much street clutter and too many road signs adds to the trouble.

6. Keeping too many children in care. This is perhaps the most stark example. Every relevant Conservative council (those "upper tier" authorities with a "Children's Services" department) applies radical Socialist policies in this area. Social work ideology trumps the interests of the child. Most children in care could and should be placed for adoption. (I won't go through all the details here as I have written about this endlessly before.)

7. Putting burdens on small business. I don't know of a single council that has used the powers that exist to reduce Business Rates for small shops.

8. Opposing traditional architecture. Planning officers will often literally write their own policy to oppose neo-classical architecture. They will slip something in on page 217 of the Unitary Development Plan of the Local Development Framework warning that "pastiche" or "backward looking" design will not gain favour but that something "imaginative" would be welcome. This policy is then used to ensure brutalist concrete slabs go up rather than the sort of design most people prefer.

9. Soft on eviction. Councils, including Conservative councils, are feeble when it comes to evicting the "neighbours from Hell" who make lives for other council tenants such a misery.

10. Asset hoarding. Usually Conservative as well as Labour councils have unused or underused buildings in municipal ownership while also spending a fortune on interest.

Before UKIP became a force in the land this was easier to get away with. If a voter felt their local Conservative council was too socialist would it really make sense for them to vote Labour or Lib Dem? If a Conservative councillor was disillusioned on the same basis it would be similarly perverse for them to defect to Labour or the Lib Dems.

So the right response to UKIP is for Conservative councils to take a step back and consider if they are applying Conservative principles. Not merely to stop votes seeping to UKIP but because it would be right to do so. Of course we can all draw up our own lists of what policies would and would not result. Dealing with the ten problems listed above would mean embracing the common ground rather than the centre ground. It would appeal to the disaffected, but not in a way that would narrow our appeal to others. The suggestion that we have to choose between winning votes from UKIP or winning votes from Labour and the Lib Dems is quite false, locally as well as nationally.

After the local election results I noted that in several counties there could be Conservative/UKIP coalitions and that in terms of policy these would offer UKIP their best chance to advance their stated causes of lower Council Tax, less political correctness and bureaucracy, fewer potholes and expansion of grammar schools.

Yet so far no such coalitions have come about and in general this seems to be due to UKIP refusing to negotiate. In Lincolnshire there is to be a Conservative/Lib Dem/Independents coalition. The Lib Dems will have one Cabinet Member. The Conservative council leader Cllr Martin Hill would have been happy to have talked to UKIP about a coalition but they weren't interested. They delayed a week before choosing their group leader - lacking any sense of urgency that in a large organisations there are decisions that have to be taken. But even before their meeting it was made clear that they would only have been interested in a UKIP/Lab/Lib Dem/Independents coalition.

Keith Mitchell, the former Conservative leader of Oxfordshire County Council, stood down as a councillor this month but I am pleased that this has not stopped him blogging.

He has written a series of posts on the local election results in his county where the Conservatives just lost overall control. The emphasis is a lively account of the local personalities and factions and mechanics of coalition following the inconclusive result.

However Mr Mitchell also offers advice to David Cameron, who as well as being Prime Minister is also one of the county's MPs.

Mr Mitchell says:

I think you and your team need to be stronger and clearer about the limitations of coalition government as well as the benefits. You need to spell out what the Liberals are preventing us from doing however much that may threaten the coalition.